First Ever Match at New Cardiff City Stadium

I was one of just under 5,000 “proper” Cardiff City fans who attended the first ever match at the new stadium on Saturday 4 July – an All Star match featuring teams managed by Eddie May and Lennie Lawrence. Even though the occasion wasn’t that fantastic, it was a great opportunity to get a first glimpse of the new stadium and to watch a match in our shiny new seats in the Canton Stand. For what it’s worth, Lennie’s team won 3-1 and Graham Kavanagh opened the scoring with a memorable goal worthy of being the first to be scored at City’s new home.

It was an opportunity to see some (very) old faces pull on a City shirt again, with the likes of Jason Perry, Carl Dale, Andy Legg, Nathan Blake, Leo Fortune-West, Kevin Nugent and Cohen Griffith lining up. It was quite surprising to see Danny Gabbidon start the match, but after being injured for the past two years, perhaps West Ham thought he needed the match practice.

Notable absences were iconic striker Phil Stant, FA Cup penalty saving hero Mark Grew and arguably one of the most under-rated City players of the late 1990s, Tony Philliskirk.

While the first half was quite entertaining, it all went downhill after the referee blew for half-time. After grimacing my way through a disgusting pint of Fosters at an extorionate £3.40, the second half descended into farce. The “better” players were all replaced by the older contingent and “celebrities”.

Professional Cardiffians such as Jamie Baulch, Jason Mohammed, Nicky Piper and two idiots from Dirty Sanchez were given the opportunity to indulge themselves much to the indifference of the crowd.

At least it was only a fiver to get in.

One spectator was sharp enough to capture Kavanagh’s goal on video:

Here are some photos taken during and after the match. I managed to snap John Williams’ goal to make it 3-1, scoring past the hapless stand-in goalkeeper and club director Steve Borley.